As noted by Tom's Hardware, Intel announced during its earnings conference call this week that its Ivy Bridge platform has entered volume production, with the company expecting to begin deliveries to computer manufacturers by the second half of this quarter. It will, however, take some time for Ivy Bridge to make its way into shipping products, with Intel's partners shooting for a Spring 2012 debut.

CEO Paul Otellini confirmed that Ivy Bridge 22 nm processor volume production has already begun, which is a rather significant achievement as there have been apparently no major hiccups in the implementation of its 3D transistor technology. There has always been the question how Intel defines "volume", but vice president Mooly Eden told me years ago that Intel would only consider a production process volume production if it affects "millions" of processors.

Intel had previously outlined its Ivy Bridge roadmap as targeting a launch for the first half of 2012, and so the latest news confirming that the company is on track with its new 3-D transistor technology bodes well for an on-time launch.

Just get me an Ivy Bridge Mac Mini with USB3 built-in to it and I'll use that as my next audio/video server. The size profile would actually work well for that use and free up one of my desks since I could share that space with a PC just using a keyboard/mouse switch and 2nd monitor input instead of having a separate PowerMac and PC setup as I have now. My media server is 3TB USB3 and so I don't want slow USB2 and I have yet to see a credible Thunderbolt solution in that regard to get full speed out of one or even another reasonable priced drive.

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